Marco Cerrato – the family trouser workshop

This is the first in what will be a series on artisanal workshops in Naples - following my trip there with Jamie a couple of weeks ago.

One of the loveliest we visited was the Cerrato atelier, which is on the first floor of an building in the Spanish Quarter of town.

The Spanish Quarter, although in the centre of Naples, is one of the oldest and poorest. It is here that you are most likely to here the Neapolitan dialect, and in these streets - running up onto the hill from Via Toledo - that you are still best avoiding late at night.

The Cerrato family house, where Marco was born, is halfway up one of these streets. The atelier is two streets over. And Marco's house today is three streets beyond that. This is still a community, in the middle of a modern city.

The door to the building is huge, wooden, designed originally for horses and cart. A small cutaway in it allows for pedestrians to step through.

The inner courtyard is dark and, frankly, very dirty. But it breathes history, and the broad stone steps up to the first floor are cool and shadowy.

The atelier itself comprises two rooms: one workshop, one office/cutting room.

In the workshop are Marco's mother, his father, his wife and his brother. (Or rather, one of his brothers - the other, Massimo, lives in London and does fittings there.)

Historically, there have been a handful of trouser workshops like this in Naples (the other big ones being Mola and Ambrosi) working nearly exclusively for tailors. Those tailors would take measurements and sometimes cut, before handing the work to the trouser workshop.

But in recent years the trouser makers have begun to establish their own brands, and serve their own customers. Ambrosi was the trailblazer there, but Cerrato also began a few years ago and now nearly half of their business is retail.

"It's important to maintain a balance, but I do like working directly with customers," says Marco. "It's more personal and more satisfying. Those customers also appreciate a higher level of handwork, or have more interesting design ideas."

He estimates that work for tailors (four, currently) can produce about 115 pairs a week. But the extra work often required for end customers means that number is more like 80 week.

Those trousers aren't all being made by the family in the workshop - about 17 people work outside, from home. They tend to do the finishing work, such as the pick stitching, bar tacks and buttonholes.

This set up used to be common in many parts of Europe, and there are still remnants of it in the UK or France (for hand rolling of handkerchiefs, for example). But the system remains in Naples, where the lack of industrialisation left many crafts intact.

The Cerrato team can do all the same handwork and detailing as any other trouser maker. There is little real difference between makers there.

Quality tends to come down to how thoroughly and precisely it is done - do buttons fall off, is the stitching so loose that lining starts to come away.

And there are occasional making points - for example, if a trouser maker is asked to do a waistband that is wider than the standard, most tend to use the same, narrow lining inside, meaning the waistband will buckle slightly.

Marco, however, cuts an entirely new lining in that case, from a full roll of canvas (below).

Interestingly, Marco also says that recently customers have been asking for narrower and narrower waistbands, against the trend of recent years.

"These things all come round in cycles," he says. "If you've been doing this for long enough you've seen everything - every type of buckle or side adjustor, every width and shape."

His current favourite is the closed or 'kissing' pleat, as seen on his trousers below.

When it comes to cutting, there are some small differences in style. 'Handwriting', as Marco puts it.

"I tend to prefer a little more room around the top, the seat," says Marco. "I hate it when the cloth pulls there. And then I would narrower the leg slightly more sharply below the knee."

You can see an example of Marco's work in the cotton trousers he made me here.

Marco still only travels to London, although is considering New York. Trouser start at £600.

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Very well written article .
As someone due to visit Naples soon you conjure up the spirit of the place really well .

On a broader point are these Italian based articles due to the readership of the blogs or to expose the quality of the tailoring ?.
This is not a criticism but are not your Naples blogs beyond the reach of many of your readership?

Additionally we would live to see you use regional tailors north of Savile Row . If for no other reason then to get some perspective .

As for PW his dress does look a bit more “unkempt” than his predecessors (missing collar stay, pressing etc). But that may be due to the, reportedly, lack of a valet (certainly in the traditional sense of PoW etc). Price of being “modern” I suppose.

I have just had 4 pair of linen trousers made by Marco and they are just beautiful. I’d have no hesitation in recommending him. I also suggest visiting him at his atelier in Naples – an beautiful quarter and a lovely space. Marco speaks a English and is quite a character. If you are a customer of Solito, you can visit both as they are 12 minutes from each other.

Hello Simone,
They made previously a pair of trouser for you so they have all your measurments. How many fittings you will need afterwards for additional trousers. Did you try some shorts from them as well.
Regards

Don’t worry too much about the bunches. There are some differences between them, but not much. More important is getting the weight and the colour right. Eg I used to have 11oz flannels but find I prefer 13 or 14.5oz these days. There isn’t much difference in the heat and they retain their shape better.

I highly appreciate your efforts to popularize traditional hand crafted clothing. I lave in a country where just about 15 years ago branded ready made garments were not much heard of. But now the tailor made clothing and the artisans who make them have almost completely vanished.
One question if I may not bother you: Who will have to buy the cloth? Would the tailor provide them or we have to go with the cloth to get it stitched?